razzele

I think my poor / bad pictures say it all !



It’s an Atom 3 300 a rather sparse car inside.









Full MSA spec with loads of spares, optional extras and accessories. It has been back to atom every year for servicing and upgrades/updates.

Pickup day was a total nightmare, requiring the windscreen to be fitted as well as full waterproofs. In hindsight a wetsuit would have been better choice to deal with the combination of heavy rain and Friday afternoon traffic. Don’t know how that would have worked with the freezing temperatures though!








I made it to Teeside before mild hypothermia set in.


There was a frost on the cars the next morning, and snow showers in the area! It seemed purchasing this car had restarted an ice age!



But the sun was breaking through and creating the first few dry lines id seen since ownership began 400miles ago or so !



Getting a good rip up on (pardon the magic box pun) i headed up to my old mans house in Morpeth where the toy box would be re arranged to accommodate this most delicate new arrival to the household.





Which is where she sat for the next week whilst i was away with work. Coincidentally that week was beautiful 20c and clear skies pretty much all week!

The following weekend i took the train down to complete the Atom’s final leg to scotland, with one very important petrolhead passenger, no prizes for guessing who that was!



WE DIDNT GET RAINED ON!! A small miracle of atomic ownership.



A few tweeks and some more exploratory laps of the local area it was way past time to unlock this things real ability on track.



What I’ve found is, it is incredibly fun, such an experience but certainly not the fastest thing in my hands right now! A few spins later, i was lapping Knockhill in around about 60 seconds with a passenger (yellow honda was c.57s).

Its like an arrow leaving a bow out the corners! But takes soo much effort to corner fast. I think the right combination of heel/toe, left foot braking, progressive acceleration will reward though maybe not as much as a new set of tyres!



Its fitted with a VBOX pro unit and i have a few go pros but I’m waaaay to lazy to figure/edit it all out right now!

Hope you enjoy’d this, i’ll have some track action videos soon. Croft on the 30th

jml

Very nice. Congrats

mikey k

you are mad as a box of frogs!

s2k_Nut

Absolutely fekin bonkers .... well done !!!!

Nick Graves

Going soft in your old age? I can't stop laughing at that journey. You fucking lunatic...

Can you adjust the suspension better to suit your driving style, or is it just a big learning curve?

Have fun with it!

LTB

cheshire_carper

Wow. I thought picking a Passat up from there would be a ball ache !

gaddafi

Unlikely that a car was ever so suited to a person!

I think new tyres might make up a lot of those three seconds.

Well done.

Nottm_S2

You are mental. I would have waited a week

I've been in one in the wet and you def get the water channeled onto you

razzele

Well, there was a reason behind my baptism of fire into Atom ownership.

The previous owner was a complete dickhead. I flew down and agreed the sale on the Wednesday, the price was based on the fact that it and the spares package had to be gone by Friday. Provisionally I had arranged a company to collect it on Thursday. They cancelled, dickhead went mental. He was adamant that if it wasn’t gone he’d return the funds and re-advertise in summer for its real price.

So me being me I hoped onto a plane, took a taxi, stuck my motorcycle gear on and attempted to drive it to the other end of England. After work. On a Friday. In heavy rain. To say the journey was memorable was an understatement!

So first drive of an atom. I pulled out of the driveway onto a road that looked like a river and sat in 1st gear traffic for 2miles, great :banged: It was like sitting in a bath tub, a cramped bath tub, with no hot tap! The rain was collecting in all the folds of my water proofs and running down into the seat. Now I know the real reason why they get called bucket seats. 15mins of clutch up clutch down and it was time for a rest

Turning right into the first petrol station I was sprayed in the face by water coming off the front right tyre! It transpires that left turns allows the left front tyre to get in on the joke aswell!

There always seems to be a welcoming committee when you stop in an Atom. Which is always fun, especially when trying not to look completely clueless or tripping over the frame and taking a wing mirror off on the way out of the carbon seats! Where is the petrol cap which pocket did I put the keys in where’s my wallet Adding to the frustration I see the traffic building as it approaches 4pm and the crowd of Atom fans has built by the time I return from paying. Barrage of questions later, to conclude it gets a good reception (Ariel pun sorry)

So back in the seat, same rigmarole. which pocket did I put the keys in where’s my wallet wheres my other glove oops gloves on before helmet damn it,I forgot earplugs :banged: and we are off, finally. This might be a serious fast machine but by the time you f@#k around getting ready to drive the thing you aren’t ever catching up the head start you gave! Straight out onto the motorway at a whooping 20mph. Blinded by spray on a four lane river. Traffic would back up and stop every few miles for the next hour on the way up past Stansted.

Still raining... M11 complete bastard on a Friday, A14 complete bastard on a Friday, A1 complete bastard on a Friday populated by civilians that seem to have an affinity with the crash barrier. I was carrying out self imposed sanity checks inside my helmet on the way up England, 500kg/300hp on semi slicks just isn’t safe in that weather. 50mph was enough to aquaplane on deeper standing water, but slow enough that the trucks were overtaking, probably sniggering “Atom wanker” as their spray went straight onto me !

Approaching Teeside at around 10pm I started to fail my own sanity checks. My last pair of waterproof gloves were soaked through. Fingers and feet were tingling with possible frost bite, I was shivering in an attempt to keep warm and singing inside my helmet. I’m not entirely sure why i was singing, certainly wasn’t because of joy possibly my mildly hypothermic state!

So I decided to swing in to see an old car buddy pal, he graciously offered to put me up but apologised that his boiler was knackered (!!!) but encouraged me over to the centrally located electric heater to scare away my blue’d finger tips!!

Day one of Atom ownership over!